At the start of a new standard format decks tend to be more aggressively inclined, this is because the metagame hasn't been ironed out so most decks are in with a shout. That being said, I think that throughout this standard format most decks will have a good chance at being top tier thanks to the wide variety of strategies and the card selection players have access too.
Staying with the aggressive decks for now, there are three avenues of play that I've chosen to look at: Goblins/Mono Red, Red-Green go big and Mono Green.
Dominaria has introduced 6 Goblins to the format and though Ixalan brought Goblins back into the limelight Dominaria has provided the red tribe with the best of the best.
Goblin Warchief, Siege-Gang Commander and Goblin Chainwhirler could easily put a Goblins deck on the map. Goblins tend to be on the cheap side anyway, so Goblin Warchief making them all cheaper and giving your other Goblins Haste can let you overrun your opponent in immense fashion. Chainwhirler does require a big red investment but the payoff is definitely worth it. This three mana 3/3 takes care of one toughness creatures with ease and makes combat very difficult for your opponent with First Strike. Dropping a Goblin Chainwhirler while already controlling a Warchief gives you five power across those two creatures immediately, giving you a chunk of attacking power, also don't forget that Chainwhirler hits planeswalkers with its ability which isn't nothing. The return of Siege-Gang Commander is a welcome one from me. I loved playing with this five mana Goblin back in the day because he makes everything much harder for your opponent to navigate. Five mana for five power is on curve and in the late game, if you cant attack through to damage them, you can start throwing your Goblins are your opponent thanks to the Commander's ability.
The addition of these three to the standard format gives me hope for a Goblins deck or at least a Mono Red deck that contains a mix of the three Goblins, the deck will be a mono colour deck and will offer a speed and power level that other decks will have trouble rivalling, especially with Skirk Prospector who has also seen a reprint in Dominaria.
Skirk Prospector could be the card to tie this all together, he gives you access to a turn two Warchief or Chainwhirler to apply early pressure and in the late game is another Goblin you can sacrifice for the Siege-Gang Commander. If there is a Goblin deck for standard to try out then Skirk Prospector is a solid four-of in that list.
Moving onto Red-Green Go Big.
This deck did already exist but I think Dominaria has given the deck some great new tools, including the aforementioned Siege-Gang Commander.
One of the reasons Red-Green will make an impact on standard is thanks to Llanowar Elves returning, this one mana 1/1 acts in the same way Skirk Prospector does for Goblins allowing you to jump ahead on mana. Because of this you could easily drop a big creature on turn two, maybe something like this...
Steel Leaf Champion does come with the same colour devotion as with Goblin Chainwhirler but if it hits the board on turn two after a turn one Llanowar Elves, the game may as well be over then and there. Your opponent has to has removal to deal with it right away or it can just take over a game, and that effect isn't anything to turn your nose up at. You'd be surprised how many times Steel Leaf Champion will have to go unblocked because your opponent doesn't have a three power creature, leaving them at the mercy of a 5/4 that will clean up quickly.
Along with these elves this Red-Green deck can use other creatures like Rhonas, Rekindling Phoenix, Hazoret, Verix Bladewing and Glorybringer to amass a huge force that your opponent will find very hard to deal with. This deck can be fleshed out with removal in the form of Shivan Fire (another new tool Dominaria offers) that works great in the early game for smaller creatures and is still effective in the late game when you have more mana to sink into the Kicker cost. The old favourites of Abrade and Lightning Strike will also find a home in this Go Big deck to keep your opponent's board in check, along with the utility advantage of Abrade in regards to artifacts.
Lastly for the aggro decks is Mono Green.
We've already seen the new additions to this list in the form of Llanowar Elves and Steel Leaf Champion, mix in a coulpe of Rhonas along with his Monument and you have a powerful and intimidating deck my friend.
The main avenue of attack for this deck is to drop a threat and ride that as far as you can, if that creature is dealt with then you drop another and continue where the first left off. It's a very straight forward deck that offers a lot of early power, which leads me to think that it will see a lot of play in early Dominaria standard until the meta is a bit clearer.
Moving away from the aggressive decks there are a couple of midrange strategies that, with the addition of Dominaria, are likely to appear in standard: Tokens/Mono White, Artifacts and Mono Black Midrange.
I have always liked token strategies, there's something about the go-wide nature of the decks that have attracted me to them in the past.
There's a handful of ways to make tokens in standard right now: Start//Finish, Legion's Landing, Oketra's Monument. These cards and many others mean that tokens could be a viable deck in standard, especially when you factor in the lords you have access to like Metallic Mimic. Dominaria has been kind enough to provide us with another lord in the form of Benalish Marshal, he means a heavy devotion to white mana but what you get is more than worth it. A three mana 3/3 is on curve, despite the awkwardness of the mana cost, and when he pumps all of your other creatures a token deck could start to snowball and really take over a game. Imagine dropping a Legion's Landing on turn one and something like a Servo Exhibition on turn two. If you the cast a Benalish Marshal on turn three you're then attacking for six and flipping your Legion's Landing, so not only are you ahead on the board and in the life race you have the extra mana to work with.
Shalai, Voice Of Plenty is another great new tool that token decks will want as she comes built in with a Gavony Township ability (putting +1/+1 counters on your creatures). Arguably though, that is probably the worst of her effects: she comes down early to apply pressure and has evasion but also gives you, your planeswalkers and all of your other creatures Hexproof, meaning that your opponent will have to deal with her before they can start targeting anything. Shalai would be a great follow up to one curve token making with a turn three Benalish Marshal, though that deck is seeming a bit greedy on its mana when it wants mono white for the first three/four turns and then wants double green for the Shalai activation.
Probably the best new addition for token decks is History Of Benalia. This three mana enchantment is a lot easier to cast than Benalish Marshal and over the first two lore counters offers you more power than the Marshal. The end chapter pay off is definitely worth it as especially if you have managed to amass more knights to maximise the effect. This is the card that I expect to see the most of if token decks become a thing because the value is incredible, three mana for two power isn't the best to start with but it very quickly becomes more and by turn five you can be attacking for eight just with the tokens History Of Benalia makes.
I wanted to take some time to look at the possible options an artifact deck has access too. I don't anticipate this deck being a big player but there are so many artifacts that offer so many effects I'm sure someone will try it out. The Improvise cards like Battle at the Bridge and Whir of Invention are still around from Kaladesh block and we already had access to Tezzeret the Schemer but he needed a little padding in order to become a viable threat, enter Karn, Scion Of Urza.
In my opinion, one of the reason Tezzeret the Schemer wasn't as played as he could have been was the lack of card advantage. He's great at getting you ahead on mana and removing creatures but there would always come a time when you either ran out or at least low on cards and it would be hard to get back into the game. Karn solves that problem, you always get the worst card off of his first ability but the good card comes later on and if you let the exiled cards build up you can have a lot to choose from, cherry picking whatever you need at the time. Karn also helps improve your board position by making artifact creatures as his last ability and in an artifact based deck I can him making 4/4's or 5/5's right off the bat. Both of these planeswalkers do cost four which does come with its own dilemmas of what split you play but like I said, I don't see this deck being huge in the meta so it might not matter.
Another card from Dominaria that could fit into this deck nicely is Traxos.
It's obvious the power that Traxos can bring to an artifact based deck, if he goes unanswered then this giant construct turns into a three turn clock. It does require a little upkeep though but that can be easily circumvented by playing a lot of Historic cards, to the point that Traxos can essentially gain Vigilance. The problem here is the same with Tezzeret and Karn, it costs four mana and it's fighting for that spot with two planeswalkers, obviously with a thought-out split all three of these cards could work in harmony but it would take a better man than me to work that out.
Mono Black is the last possible midrange deck I've been looking into, mainly because of the influx of removal over the last couple of sets and the fact that one of them is a nice Terror variant.
Having a straight up removal spell at two mana is surprisingly effective, we've spent a while without one and it's been hard to live through. Now we have Cast Down (not to get confused with Cast Out, which I have been writing every time I mean to write Cast Down) this two mana removal spell will fit in nicely with Fatal Push and Vraska's Contempt, making it very hard for your opponent to gain any sort of board position at all. Coupling all of this removal with something like Glint-Sleeve Siphoner, Gifted Aetherborn or Gonti, Lord Of Luxury and you can have a very powerful mono black deck, and the new black djinn will definitely pull his weight.
The last deck that I'm going to look into today is blue-white control.
Some of you may have already come across some lists or even brewed some up yourselves and you would be right to, the amount of potential these colours had has been upped ten-fold with the introduction of Dominaria.
There was already a blue-white control deck out there, sometimes even Esper control that made great use of black removal and The Scarab God. With the addition of Seal Away and Blink of an Eye however you can keep to a two colour deck and have plenty of cheap, if a little particular, removal. Settle The Wreckage keeps your opponent on their toes and stops them from alpha striking, Cast Out helped deal with planeswalkers or tricksy enchantments and artifacts, now you have Seal Away to help in the early game and Blink of an Eye that plays well both early and late and doubles up as card advantage. Syncopate is the counterspell control players have sorely needed for a while now and its a relief that it's back, Censor did a fine job but was awful in the late game when they could easily leave up one mana. Syncopate does Censor's job and then some, bar the Cycling part but you can forgive it for that.
Teferi, Hero Of Dominaria provides a blue-white control deck with a nice sense of longevity, particularly with his second ability, and if you get to the ultimate works as the best removal you could ask for. At this point every card you draw has extra impact on the game: your draw step, exile a permanent. Kicked your Blink of an Eye? Exile a permanent. A cheeky little Opt? Exile a permanent. And keep in mind that Teferi doesn't state nonland permanents, so you can spend your time demolishing your opponent's mana base before going after any threats they may have. Without a good mono blue planeswalker in standard we needed something to fill the gap and Teferi does that and oh so much more, brilliant in a control deck or even a tempo deck that can apply pressure on other fronts while letting him tick up and wreck your opponent.
Speaking of pressure on other fronts, Lyra in my opinion is going to be one of the standout cards from Dominaria. You may remember how devastating Baneslayer Angel was back in the day and if you don't, lucky you. Anyone can see that a five mana 5/5 with a whole bunch of keywords, one in particular being Lifelink, is stupid powerful, Lyra can single-handidly take over and win a game so she isn't to be trifled with lightly. You don't drop her on turn five unless you are so far ahead that it wouldn't matter if she lives or not, she's more of a late game creature to arrive on the battlefield when you've pretty much got the game wrapped up but need a finisher. The sheer power that Lyra provides is fantastic for a control player to utilise, if you can protect her she will become the bane of your opponent's life and become your best friend.
So that't been my take on what I think standard will look like with the introduction of Dominaria, personally I think blue-white control will be the one to beat and it will be very hard to do so. Maybe this has given you some ideas to start brewing and at the minute any deck could stand a chance in the competitive meta. Dominaria has so much to offer with so many different avenues and strategies to explore so have fun trying out what takes your fancy.
I hope you enjoyed this look at possible standard decks to come, if you're after any of the cards I've highlighted today swing by Arcanecardshop.co.uk for all of your single needs and remember to keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment